“The New Testament is introduced with the history of a famous Baptist preacher and his order of baptizing. John, the forerunner of Jesus, is called a Baptist fifteen times in the four Evangelists. Is it ignorance or ill will, that so often reproaches the Baptists with novelty? Is it not certain that the first preacher spoken of in the New Testament was a Baptist? Why should they be called a new sect, when they can name their founders antecedent to the founders of any other society? Did not Jesus submit to John’s baptism, to fulfill all righteousness? Was not Jesus therefore, a Baptist? These things are so.” “…the Baptists can produce sacred proof for their appearance in Judea, about fifteen hundred years before those tumults in Germany (the Reformation)”.
John Leland, The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland, 1845, page 79,121
“If Christ so publicly honoured the baptism of John, let us all with holy obedience in the same duty, seek to do honour to that of Christ Himself. … Consequently, Jesus Christ, the great Lord of all, was a Baptist.”
William Stokes, History of the Baptists and their Principles, 1866, page 4
“John the Baptist was the prototype of all Baptists, in name, character, martyr spirit, in doctrine and practice. His baptized or Baptist disciples followed the baptized or Baptist Savior; and the first churches were baptized or Baptist churches, constituted with Christ as Head and Lawgiver, but practicing John’s baptism and holding to the fundamental principles upon which that baptism was administered: repentance toward God and faith in Christ.”
George Lofton, Why the Baptist Name, 1912, page 8
“We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians.”
Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1861, Vol. 7 page 225
“I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as 100 AD, although without a doubt there were Baptist churches then, as all Christians were then Baptists.”
John Ridpath (Methodist Historian – a letter to WA Jarrel) found in: Baptist Church Perpetuity by W.A. Jarrel, 1894, page 59
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